Invitation non-European international teams

Invitation non-European international teams

The IMHA and the Organizing Committee have decided to invite non-European international teams to take part in the pool matches against the international European teams. They cannot win European Medals or trophies, but they can enjoy quality matches and provide more opposition for the European teams. The pool positions would be publicised, but the semi-finals and finals would be only for the best placed European teams after results against non-European teams are removed. As such it is possible to increase the number of games for teams in the age groups with least number of teams. These teams could be from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or Africa in general, or the Americas (combined US and Canadian teams), etc.
It has also been decided, that countries, besides their A-team, can subscribe a B-team under the restriction, that B-teams will have the status of non-Eur0pean teams.

The names of these teams could be for example the Lions/Lionesses for English teams. These teams could allow players who weren’t quite good enough to be selected for the national team to play in a top quality competition, but are still good enough to provide tough opposition for the rest. It might be the only chance that these players ever have to play in such a competition and it may create lifelong memories for them to enjoy. For countries which do not have enough players to make a viable squad, they could combine and form a composite team. They would share the same non-European-team status.